Joker
Mechanics officers.]] First, a law enforcer must be intimidated using Dominator; gang members and specials are immune to Dominator, and therefore also immune to this skill. After the law enforcer has cuffed himself, any player with this skill may interact with him to do a conversion. Each player with this skill may only have converted unit under their command at a time. The law enforcer's health is restored as well as having their health and damage increased if this skill is Aced. Law enforcers affected by Joker will behave similarly to the AI allies, with the notable exception of them being incapable of reviving downed players. Converted enemy units cannot be stunned by a Taser or Cloaker. Being caught within the radius of player-based explosives such as grenade launcher shots or Frag Grenades will injure them regardless. Like AI allies, they have a blue outline to show that they are friendly to the players. Converts will be affected by ECM Feedback if utilized in their presence. Strategy Target Selection Players with this skill should attempt to dominate the toughest or strongest law enforcement available. Since specials cannot be dominated, the most ideal target is a Maximum Force Responder, as their frontal body armor is completely resistant to standard bullets, and they have very high health. Heavy Response Units are also quite viable thanks to their high damage output (especially if they have a shotgun) but will generally not last nearly as long as a Maximum Force Responder. When playing on Death Wish, converting GenSec SWAT members can also be a wise choice thanks to their powerful arsenal of weapons. When playing Meltdown, Murkywater PMCs are also a good choice due to their high-damage Eagle Heavies. As a converted law enforcer is restored to full health on conversion, players should not hesitate to injure any potential victim beforehand. See the Dominator skill page for more useful information on securing hostages. Alternatively, converting law enforcers with less health can also be helpful in the short term. This is because the less health and protection the law enforcer has, the more damage they do to offset this. A converted security guard or police officer with this algorithm and Joker-related skills aced could easily take out a group of FBI HRUs and maybe even a special or two, before they can down him. On lower difficulties however, it's often preferred to convert the highest possible law enforcer you can find, especially any FBI unit, due to their scarcity on Normal and Hard difficulties. They will be able to sustain a lot of firepower due to the enemy's reduced damage output. On Very Hard and above however, law enforcers with less health and more damage can be viable options, as they can possibly take down a steady flow of enemies before getting overwhelmed. A converted law enforcer is very useful against Cloakers as they can take them out without risking getting kicked and incapacitated. This also allows your teammates to revive you from a Cloaker's kick without the danger of getting kicked themselves. The same tactic is useful against Tasers. Bugs *After a converted law enforcer dies, other law enforcers (Specials included) may continue to target and shoot his body until the maximum amount of ragdolls allowed deletes his body on the host's side. This can be exploited as a distraction, by converting low-health law enforcers and leaving them to die somewhere cop-heavy, making them focus on him, instead of the crew. *You can still tell converted cops to surrender. Achievements Trivia *A joker is a wild card, or an unexpected factor that changes or reverses a situation. *In the first few versions of this skill, the converted unit was forced to wear a bomb; the player told them that either they would serve the heisters or they would explode. This has since been removed due to fear of negative reviews. The old sounds still play on at least the FBI and MFR units. *Unlocking Joker requires one point in Dominator since Joker would be useless if there were no dominated enemies to convert. **One could argue that gameplay-wise that is not strictly necessary as players can convert units dominated by other players. *Unlike friendly AI bots, converted units will not regenerate lost health. *If aim assist is activated on console the player will target converted law enforcers if they are aiming close to one. The same applies to dominated law enforcers. *A converted law enforcer still has the ability to climb or dive/roll away from enemy fire. *In more recent versions of the game, converted law enforcers will spring up battle-ready, while in earlier builds they had to go through a standing up animation, draw their weapons and only after a roughly 2-second delay, could they join the fight. *A converted law enforcer will never use his melee attack against his former comrades, nor will he be attacked in melee range. *Converted law enforcers will still use their standard battle quotes. *If the player tries to convert an dominated enemy while in stealth or has already an converted enemy a message will show up that reads: "Your persuasion techniques have failed." *As with AI bots, players can walk through converted law enforcers.